MOUNT VERNON — Yale University law professor and prolific author Stephen Carter, named by Time magazine as one of the 50 young leaders for this century, will lecture on “Religion and Public Policy in the United States,” then participate in a discussion with faculty members at Cornell College on Friday, April 27. The lecture is at 11 a.m. and the discussion is at 1:30 p.m., both in Hedges Conference Room of The Commons. Admission is free.
Carter’s visit is for the annual Earhart-Cornell Lecture series, “The Liberal Arts and the Public Square,” funded by the Earhart Foundation of Ann Arbor, Mich. The discussion will feature formal responses by Cornell politics professor Craig Allin and history professor William Carroll. Sociology professor Christopher Carlson will be the moderator.
Carter is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Yale and a former law clerk to the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. His extensive writings include seven nonfiction titles, most recently “God’s Name in Vain,” which uses contemporary and historical examples — from abolitionist sermons to presidential candidates’ confessions — to show the role of religion in American life. His other books are “Reflections of an Affirmative Action Baby” (1991), “The Culture of Disbelief: How American Law and Politics Trivialize Religious Devotion” (1993), “The Confirmation Mess” (1994), “Integrity” (1996), “Civility: Manners, Morals, and the Etiquette of Democracy” (1998) and “The Dissent of the Governed: A Meditation on Law, Religion, and Loyalty” (1998).
His first novel, “The Emperor of Ocean Park,” to be published in May 2002, recently was sold to Knopf Publishing Group for $4 million, a record price for a first-time novel from Knopf. It’s the story of a black law professor investigating the death of his conservative federal judge father. The Knopf deal includes a future second novel.
Carter earned a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and a law degree from Yale.
Carter’s is the third lecture in the annual Earhart-Cornell Lecture series, which featured economist, columnist and commentator Walter Williams last year and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in 1999.